Started in 2002, the Visualizing Cultures website is produced by MIT, and it was designed "to explore the potential of the Web for developing innovative image-driven scholarship and learning." The site contains topical units of self-discovery which are focused on Japan's role in the modern world and early-modern China. The various units address cultures of modernization, war and peace, and consumerism, among others. Each unit is represented by a different image, and visitors will find a short narrative essay along with plenty of visual images which document teach topic. One unit that should not be missed is "Felice Beato's Japan". Here visitors can learn about the pioneering work of Felice Beato, as he took photos of the "exotic" Japanese people in his Yokohama studio and captured the transitional period between the "feudal governance of the Edo period (1600-1868) and the imperial rule of the Meiji era (1868-1912)."